Citation
(2001), "Guidance on new US patient privacy protections", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 14 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2001.06214gab.009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Guidance on new US patient privacy protections
Guidance on new US patient privacy protections
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued the first in a series of guidance materials on new federal privacy protections for medical records and other personal health information. The guidance, issued in July, explains and clarifies key provisions of the medical privacy regulation, which was published in December 2000.
Providing this guidance is part of an ongoing process to help health-care providers and health plans come into compliance with the regulation by 14 April 2003.
The guidance answers common questions about the new protections for consumers and requirements for doctors, hospitals, other providers, health plans and health insurers, and health-care clearing-houses. It also clarifies some of the confusion regarding the meaning of key provisions of the rule. For example, the guidance makes clear that hospitals do not have to build private, soundproof rooms to prevent overheard conversations about a patient's condition, as some mistakenly believed. Rather, the rule simply requires that hospitals provide reasonable safeguards to protect confidential information, such as using curtains, screens or similar barriers, which are often already used.
HHS proposed federal privacy standards in 1999 and, after reviewing and considering more than 50,000 public comments on them, published final standards in December 2000. HHS Secretary Thompson requested public comment on the rule this spring before allowing the rule to take effect on 14 April. The guidance addresses many key issues of concern reflected in the more than 11,000 separate public comments on the final rule submitted to HHS during a 30-day comment period in March. Topics include patient consent, parental rights, marketing, medical research and governmental access issues.
For further information: detailed information about the rule, including the initial guidance, is available at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa